Songs of Christmas

With Christmas season here what is your favorite Christmas song?

Oh I have a couple:

• Oh Holy Night 

• With Wondering Awe 

• Christmas Bells

 Last year I acquired a new favorite Christmas song: Christ the Lord is Risen Today

You may be wondering why one of my favorite Christmas songs is a traditional Easter song. Well I will tell you why. Last year I was watching the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional (check it out here). Anyways the idea was presented that it is important to celebrate Jesus' birth but if it wasn't for His Atonement, suffering for our sins, dying on the cross, and resurrection, there would be no need to celebrate His birth. So in my own way I show that Christmas is much more than celebrating a birth it is celebrating a life.

How do you know?

The other day a man asked me a very interesting question.

"How do you know that Jesus is your Savior?"

I thought a lot about that and then applied that questions to other things. Like how do I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's church on the earth again. How do I know that the Book of Mormon is true? How do I know that there is a prophet on the earth again? How do I know?

Well let me answer by first asking another question. How do you know that the floor is there in the morning when you are lying in bed? I mean I always trust that the floor is there every morning but I still have to try it out and put my feet down. I have to act and do my part. If I lay in bed and just say that the floor is there doesn't really help to know if the floor is there.

Nephi also teaches us how we can know certain things of God. Here is a converstaion that he had with his brothers.
"And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord?

And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.

Behold, I said unto them: How is it that ye do not keep the commandments of the Lord? How is it that ye will perish, because of the hardness of your hearts?

Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you."

So to answer the question of how do I know. I know because I have acted. I know that Jesus is my Savior because I have accepted Him and then I have followed Him. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's church on the earth, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that we have a prophet on the earth today because I have prayed and asked God and then I followed my answer that I have received.

One last thing, I know that you can come to know these truths for yourself. All you have to do is ask God with a open heart and then be willing to act. Be willing to take that step on the floor. I know it will change your life and make it better than better.

Run Run Run

Once upon a time in High School I took a PE class. For the most part it wasn't too bad. We did fun things like badmitton, and volleyball, and swimming. Then we had to take these tests like how many sit-ups we could do and how long we could jump with a jump rope. Most of them weren't that bad but the worst one was the mile. To get a decent grade for the mile you had to run it in 8 minutes. Now I think the fastest I have ever run a mile was in maybe 9 minutes and that was when I was in really good shape. So here I am having to run the mile knowing that the best grade I could get on it was a D. Knowing this I could have just given up and walked the mile. I mean if I was going to get a bad grade I better not kill myself. But instead I decided that I would run the whole thing. It wasn't easy but I felt that I had tried my best and even though I didn't get a great grade I still knew that I had given it my all.

You know that really is all that Jesus expects us to do. He knows that life is hard and that there are certain things that we don't want to do. But if we really try and give our all then He will make up the rest. He will take our D and turn it into a A+. He wants us to succeed but we have to do our part as well.  "For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." (2 Nephi 25:23) So go ahead and run that mile, go and keep the commandments, go and follow God. It won't be easy but it is possible and Jesus will help us.

Confusão

Oh hey! Você não vai entender isso, porque você não fala em portugues. Lembre-se que Deus te ama e se preocupa com você.

Uh... what? Have you ever had a time that you had someone speak to you in another language, or even sometimes in your native language, and you just have no idea what they are saying? I sure have. May last few companions have been waiting for their visa to go down to Brazil. Sometimes they will speak portugues out loud and then look at me like I should understand. I just give them a blank stare back because I don't speak Portuguese.

Have you ever felt that perhaps God speaks to us in a different language? That perhaps He is speaking to us in Portuguese? That maybe He isn't even speaking at all? Well I can testify that He does speak to us. He is there. He is reaching out to us and all we have to do is listen.

Listening to God though is different than listening to someone next to us talking. To listen to God we don't just listen with our ears but we listen with our hearts and with our minds."Yea, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart." Doctrin and Covenants 8:2  We have to really be focused. One of the main ways we can hear God by praying and actually talking with Him not just to Him. When we really seek out to have a conversation with our Heavenly Father and really let Him know how we are doing He will answer us.

So the next time you feel that maybe God is speaking in Portuguese have a conversation with Him and you will find out that you can understand Him perfectly.

Hope

"Hope . . . is like the beam of sunlight rising up and above the horizon of our present circumstances. It pierces the darkness with a brilliant dawn. It encourages and inspires us to place our trust in the loving care of an eternal Heavenly Father, who has prepared a way for those who seek for eternal truth in a world of relativism, confusion, and of fear." President Dieter F Uchtdorf

One thing that really does make me smile is hope. Knowing that there is always something better out there for us is wonderful. All we have to do is to put our trust in God. When we put our trust in God then there really is always something better to look forward to. It is that hope that we will one day live with God again that keeps me moving.

For more ways that hope can help you check out this website all about HOPE

Holes

When I was about 9 years old we went down to St. George Utah to visit my Grandmother and Grandpa Phil. They always liked to have activities for us kids so that we weren't bored to death and we enjoyed going down there. This one visit when we got to their home they told us that Grandpa Phil had dug a hole and we were to guess the dimensions for this hole. Once we had all guessed and it was a little coolier in the day they drove us out to this hole. I don't remember who was closest, pretty sure it wasn't me. I remember though that it was a very long hole and me feeling bad that Grandpa Phil dug that hole it the ridiculous heat of Southern Utah. I have no idea of how long it took him to dig that hole but I imagine that it took him quite a while.

Sometimes we too end up digging holes for no apparent reason. We dig and we dig and we dig. It can be quite exhausting. Our holes can be of saying wrong things, spending too much time from home and family, bad habits, technology,

As we get deeper and deeper in our holes it becomes our norm and we are often afraid to leave and face the real world. Even if we do want to leave we often feel we are to deep to get out by ourselves. Luckily the Savior understands that we put ourselves in these holes and He is constantly walking to the edge of each of our holes and asking us if we want help out. If we are afraid to leave we may yell at Him and curse at Him. The interesting thing is He just says, "Ok, I'll be back in 5 minutes in case you change you mind," and He always comes back. He will keep visiting our hole until we are ready to accept His help to get out. Then He lowers a ladder a helps us out. We just got to climb up the ladder.

Best Gift Ever

 When you think of gifts what do you think of? Do you think of gifts that you have been given or gifts that you have given? Honestly, I think of what I have been given. Though after a tiny bit I start to think of the gifts that I have given which in the long run make me so much happier than the ones I have received.
I remember this one time I wanted to get my mom an amazing gift. Well I saw that a nativity set that she had been wanting was on sale. I pulled all my money together and I had enough. So I bought it feeling extremely giddy. The only problem was that Christmas was the previous week and my mom's birthday wasn't for another couple of months. Just waiting to give her the gift was almost too much for me and I almost gave it to her earlier. Finally her birthday arrived. As she opened the present I was filled with so much happiness. Just seeing her face of shock made up for having to wait all those months to give it to her. It was then that I truly understood that when you give to others you get more than you give.

Now these last couple of months I have been able to share an even greater gift to those I love. It is the gift of the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ and His Restored Gospel. I was given this gift myself and it truly fills all my soul with so much happiness that I want to share it with others. Knowing my purpose of being here on earth and what I can do to be even happier really is the best gift I could ever receive or give. I want to bear testimony that I know that it is only through Jesus Christ that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father; that through His love He willingly came down here to earth for each one of us to save us, to redeem us. This is the best gift we have or will ever have.

If you have received this gift, go share it with others. It will make you so happy and help you feel fulfilled. If you haven't received this gift or don't understand how Jesus Christ can make you have greater happiness I strongly encourage you to go to mormon.org, explore, and then request missionaries that can and will share this gift with you.

With the Christmas season coming up let us all try to remember always what the best gift ever was: Jesus Christ.